Everyone said "Who?" And the AD proceeded to say that Bill Walsh recommended him. Shea had been coaching in Canada.
Remember the day Rutgers announced that Terry Shea was the new head coach?
- Thread starter Extra Point
- Start date
It was that Bill Walsh recommendation that got everyone excited. Years later I would curse his name every time I heard it.
I seem to remember that he took a whole month off between jobs during critical recruiting period. You are just announced head coach and you disappear for a month. Way to hit the ground running.
Graber had lost control. '96 wouldn't have been as bad as it was if he stayed but a change was needed.
Not only that. He hired a recruiting coordinator who had never been in NJ and knew nothing about NJ high school football.
Sorry to say and admit it........I was actually excited when I heard about the Walsh recommendation and connection to Terry Shea. At the time, I thought the Walsh style west coast offense at the college level would be great and unstoppable....no one else was running it in college at the time.
We did learn from it.
When we were searching for the next new coach and Phil Simms made some a-hole recommendation after not even allowing his kids to visit we politely told him to F off.
I distinctly remember posters from California telling us that we had hit the jackpot with Shea and we were going "bowling". Not only was the idea of going to any bowl intoxicating, it really meant something back then unlike today when almost everyone goes to one. Well, except us of course! :chairshot:
Bill mistakenly called the Athletic Director at Rutgers NEWARK to give his personal recommendation for Terry Shea.
Graber deserved to be fired. but we got the hire wrong. thankfully, we lucked into schiano, after losing out on gary darnell.
As I recall, the first choice at that time was Gary Pinkel of Toledo. But he rejected us in favor of Mizzou. Pinkel then performed wonders at Mizzou -- especially considering that their recruiting ratings were generally about the same as RU. As a coach, he was 10x better than Schiano.
pinkel was a possibility, but didn't even interview because he wasn't interested. at least that is my recollection.
Anyone remember the DC that Shea hired.....Rod Sharpless, he came from Va. Tech where he was LB coach. I remember already also being excited about us having a Va. Tech style Defense at the time. Actually, I think Sharpless did a decent good, based on the talent he had to work with at the time.....I remember he saying, "all he needed was a big run stuffing DT" for his scheme to work. He never got it and was demoted down to LB coach when brought in a new DC.
Last edited:
Graber did not deserve to get fired. The problem was Grunninger. Let Graber make the schedule and we would have been much more successful much sooner. You have to walk before you can run. Now, we can walk and we need to run!
Similar threads
Latest posts
-
-
-
Buying season tickets, but selling them? Looking for feedback...- Latest: greenknight
-
